This year for the NC QSO Party I activated three Pota entities in three different counties. US-6909, Harris State Game Land(WAKe county), US-6920, Lee State Game Land(LEE county), and US-6916, Jordan State Game Land(CHAtham county).
After Action Photos
Did not take any photos during the event, but the morning after. The extension on the hitch mast support allows dropping the tailgate with the antenna deployed. On my last vehicles(a 4runner and Jeep Cherokee) I also had a front mount hitch, which I prefer to use for the mast. So far the only front hitch I have found for the Sierra hangs down too far. The ground clearance on the Sierra 1500 is too already low for my preference, only about 9 inches. Begs for a 3 inch lift. The “radio mount” in the vehicle is comical, a 5mm plywood board resting on a jack stand in the front and taped to the console in the rear, with the radio “secured” with more painters tape to the board. Hmmmm……sketchy, but functional.
The truck hitch receiver with a step extension that supports the telescoping fiberglass mast. The mast du’jour is the Jac-kite 31 footer. Plus assorted extra junk in the truck bed.
The high tech radio install for the 2025 NC QSO Party. The battery is behind the radio sitting on the “parts-n-spares” tote. MFJ tuner in passenger seat on radio storage box.
STATION
The station du-jour was the FT-891, logging with a kludged writelog half assed set up. For whatever reason Writelog was not flagging dupes, so I was trying to look them up manually while S&P. Mostly just went S&P while trying to find a clear frequency.
Used a telescoping fiberglass mast at all three sites, which showed more droop than expected. The telescoping mast was supported in a hitch mounted pole support with the base of the mast resting on the ground. The antenna was a 58 foot doublet fed with 300 ohm ladder line into a 4:1 balun, with a short coax jumper into an mfj-949 tuner, radio set at 100w. Logging on a laptop running Writelog, which could send frequency changes to the radio but was not polling and keeping the log updated when spinning the dial on the radio. At the third and final stop the antenna was modified to extend the length to 90 feet for better use on 80m. Power to the radio is supplied via a 100ah LifePO4 stand alone battery. Radio conditions seemed excellent for most of the day. The broadcast stations on 40m became troublesome, should have moved to 80m late. Lack of sleep kicked in late though, and I bailed with an hour of time left on the table.
The Day
The day started out at US-6909 on frozen ground. Arrived a bit early to set up before NCQP startup, but was running late anyway. Wound up doing only SSB. Could not get any results on 20m, so moved down to 40m to work more locals. Ran into that days’ only problem when the keypad caused problems with the radio. More on that later….. In the meantime, had a decent time at that location.
Moved on a few minutes earlier. The second location at us-6920 was in full sun, but had the best rates of the day. As the afternoon wore on I began to miss the freezing weather from a few days earlier. Operating in the vehicle was a bit warm under the clear skies with temps almost hitting 60 outside. But the 20m pileup of Pota ops was worth the sweat.
The final location, US-6916 was a good choice logistically, but the band was crowded and it felt like folks were not taking into account the park and county had changed. Note to self: Game lands get REALLY dark, bad idea to misplace the flashlight.
Musings In-No_Particular-Order
Generally, it was a pretty fun outing. I’m torn between using Writelog, which I really like, but does NOT FUNCTION PROPERLY with my FT-891, or finally switch to N1MM which I generally HATE WITH A PASSION. Suckage either way, although the FT-891 itself is more than likely the point of failure. I can probably get over my N1MM hate fetish, but the ft-891 would still be a problem due to the dread “Cat Control Tick”. FT-891 Tick worse than N1MM which is worse than Writelog not working with the 891. ??PAPER LOGS???
So in this case I used Writelog anyway, and resigned myself to fucking up the log. I like Writelog, and I like the ft-891 as a radio. Maybe N3FJP is the solution, I already have the license, I like it better than N1MM, and I had it working with all of the radios(ts-590/K2/K3/ft-891).
Other minor issue…..somewhere Saturday loading the truck I misplaced the FH-2 keypad. WTF!?!?!? I had the home brewed keypad, so I used that, but it was causing it own issues. Like for some reason when trying to record messages it was changing the radio frequency instead. NOT GOOD. The temp solution was to use the radio controls to record the messages, and forget about customizing the radio message memories on the fly. I hope the FH-2 keypad turns up when I ransack the vehicle tomorrow.
Other issue….I gotta learn how to pare the gear down. A correctable personal deficiency. Not EASILY correctable, but correctable. 🙁
Observation-1 ….The 58 foot doublet K2AV came up with several years ago for use in the IOTA contest is a really good general purpose antenna for 40/20/15/10. It was originally designed to allow the Elecraft K3 internal tuner to find a match, so it is a piece of cake for an external tuner. At the last stop I added legs to increase it to a 90 foot doublet to allow using it on 80m/75m, and easier match for the tuner. The shorter length models well showing useful patterns on all four bands and matches easily. Use the K3 in the car? A possibility.
Observation-2 ….The antenna used was constructed of 16ga wire, The mast droop is substantial especially with the longer legs. Time to try 18ga wire again? The 26ga stealth wire?
Results:
NORTH CAROLINA QSO PARTY
Call Used : W4KAZ
Last County Ran : CHA
Callsign(s) of Operators(s) : W4KAZ
Entry Class : Single Op – In State
BAND CW PH MULTS
==========================
80 0 0 0
40 0 167 59
20 5 123 27
15 0 0 0
10 0 0 0
Note: The one DX mult (if worked) not shown in band breakdown
Multipliers : 86 NC Counties/State/Prov
Extra DX Mult : 1
W4NC Bonus : 0 pts
W4WS Bonus : 0 pts
W4NC+W4WS Bonus : 0 pts
Cherokee Bonus : 50 pts
Dare Bonus : 0 pts
Both CTY Bonus : 0 pts
Contact Points : 595
Total Mults : 87
Claimed Score : 51815
I have followed the North Carolina QSO Party Rules
ALL Operators must sign clearly, including callsign
Signature(s): ___________________________________
Date: ______________
MULTIPLIERS WORKED:
ALA ALE ASH AVE BLA BRU BUN BUR CAL CAM CAR
CHE CLA CLE CUM DVD DUR FOR FRA GUI HAR HEN
HYD IRE LEE LEN LIN MAD MCD MEC MIT MON MOO
NEW ONS ORA PEN PEQ PIT RAN ROC ROW RUT STA
STO SUR TRA UNI WAK WAT WIL YAD CT MA NH
RI VT NY NJ DE MDC PA AL FL GA KY
SC TN VA AR LA MS OK TX MI OH WV
IL IN WI KS MN MO SD NB ON
You have also been credited with one mult for DX
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